This invention relates to an athletic shoe having spike- or stud-shaped cleats exchangeably arranged in rows of openings in the running sole, each row of cleats being fastened to the sole by a single holding means.
In the case of the known athletic shoes of this type, threaded inserts made of aluminum, steel or a similar material are cast or pressed into the running sole made of a plastic material, such as polyamide or polyurethane. The spike- or stud-shaped cleats, such as spikes, claws, studs or similar means, are screwed directly into these threaded inserts. In order to ensure a somewhat tight fit of the cleats, they must be tightened to the limit, if possible, by means of a tool made especially for that purpose. The result is that the thread of the inserts is often unintentionally strained to the extent that it becomes useless after only a few exchanges. The latter is especially true when, for reasons of weight reduction, instead of the steel inserts, inserts are used that are made of a lighter material, such as aluminum. These and other disadvantages occur also when, in order to make the cleats exchangeable, snap fasteners of the press-stud type are used instead of threaded inserts. This type of fastening has the additional disadvantage that a twisting of the inserted profiles is hard to avoid, especially in the case of excessive strain.
It has been tried to eliminate the disadvantage of the above-mentioned form of mountings for the cleats by fastening the cleats on separate strips having trapezoidal cross sections arranged transversely to the longitudinal axis of the sole. These strips are pushed into correspondingly shaped dovetailed grooves of the running sole (compare DE-OS No. 25 35 623). Here, the strip, on the one hand, adjoins the standing edge of the running sole and is, on the other hand, fastened by means of a plastic mounting stud screwed only into the strip, with said plastic mounting stud, with its part that projects over the strip, reaching into a recess in the shape of a borehole disposed in the bottom of the groove. This construction has the disadvantage that the small plastic screws are stressed with respect to shearing when the profiled parts and, thus, the strips are affected by forces in the direction of the sliding-in side. This type of fastening, therefore, does not ensure a rapid exchange or replacement of the strips with the pertaining cleats, especially when the stress has caused the small plastic screw to break off. Such constructions are, therefore, rarely used in practice.
On the basis of DE-AS No. 13 00 842, it is also known to fix several cleats, arranged next to one another in a row, by means of a joint retaining plate with keyhole-shaped openings which is inserted into a laterial opening of the running sole, so that the keyhole-shaped openings of the retaining plate are made to coincide with open recesses in the running sole. The cleats are inserted into the openings of the running sole so that they reach through the keyhole-shaped openings in the retaining plate. The round heads of the cleats have slot-shaped notches. After a relative shift between the retaining plate and the cleats in the long, approximately rectangular opening part of the keyhole-shaped openings, the heads of the cleats having the notches support themselves on the retaining plate. It is the disadvantage of this construction that the retaining plate is the sole securing means of the cleats with respect to all types of stress. Because of the deep, groove-shaped notches in the heads of the cleats, the cleats are particularly endangered with respect to breakage through shearing forces. In addition, the retaining plate must be constructed so as to be relatively sturdy because it is the sole holding element for the cleats. This results in a considerable increase in weight which, in most cases, is not acceptable.
The invention is, therefore, based on the objective of providing a holding means for the exchangeably arranged cleats of the running sole of an athletic shoe that, in comparison to the known holding means, is lighter, simpler to handle, as well as more reliable and more durable, and that makes it possible for the athlete to himself/herself provide his/her athletic shoes very rapidly with cleats that are optimally adapted to the respective sport and soil condition.
According to preferred embodiments of the invention, this objective, in the case of an athletic shoe of the initially-mentioned type, is achieved by means of the fact that the base parts of the cleats are fastened in the openings of the running sole in a manner so that they cannot be twisted about their longitudinal axis, and wherein base parts of the cleats have at least one borehole that is alignable with lateral boreholes in the running sole in each row of cleats to form a continuous borehole, a shaft being provided as a fastening means for each of said row of cleats, so that, by means of the insertion of a single said shaft into said continuous borehole, all of the cleats of a respective row of cleats is fastened jointly to said holding means.
The athletic shoe according to the invention has the advantage, over the known athletic shoes, that the base parts of the cleats, irrespective of their cross section, are inserted into openings of the running sole, so that they are always firm with respect to twisting and cannot be lost. A shaft penetrates the running sole transversely and represents an additional holding element that is not stressed with respect to shearing and may, therefore, be formed so as to be comparatively thin and, thus, light. Because of the small dimensions of the transversely-extending shaft, a weakening of the actual running sole can also be avoided, because this shaft can always be housed only in an additional strip-shaped holding means of the running sole. Because of the low stress produced, a hollow shaft may even be used, so that the added weight is practically without significance.
It is especially advantageous to provide the base parts, arranged at the edge of the running sole along their shaft, with several fastening points. Thus, varying lengths of grip may be obtained with one and the same base part, which is an advantage inventory-wise, because the same cleat can be used for varying purposes.
Another advantage is that the bolt-shaped holding parts, at the fastening points of the running sole, may be formed to have the shape of a half shell and may be provided with a wedge-shaped recess, as well as with joints, that have the same shape on both sides, which are used for receiving the base part. In this manner, the base part is mounted in the wedge-shaped recess, so that it can be swivelled in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the sole. Consequently, the cleats, even in the case of a very bent running sole, can be removed from the track or from the playing field always in a vertical or at least largely in a vertical direction, which not only saves strength, but also especially avoids, to a great extent, damage to the cleat or the playing field.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.